Videos are not displayed into Screenly OSE

Anthias Balena
1

Hi, I’m using OpenShot video editor exporting on different formats and none of those are being recognized by Screenly and only a black screen is shown, I’ve added the assets as mp4 (h.264), mp4 (mgep4), avi (mpeg4), do you know if should I use any specific format to export the video for Screenly OSE to take it?

The following is the log from the balena cloud main page:
22.07.19 08:32:40 (-0500) Showing asset Starredeyes.mp4 (video)
22.07.19 08:32:40 (-0500) current url is file:///tmp/screenly_html/black_page.html
22.07.19 08:32:41 (-0500) Resource URI is not correct, remote host is not responding or request was rejected.
22.07.19 08:32:42 (-0500) Showing asset Wanttowantme.avi (video)
22.07.19 08:32:42 (-0500) current url is file:///tmp/screenly_html/black_page.html
22.07.19 08:32:43 (-0500) Resource URI is not correct, remote host is not responding or request was rejected.
22.07.19 08:32:43 (-0500) Showing asset Wanttowantme2.mp4 (video)
22.07.19 08:32:43 (-0500) current url is file:///tmp/screenly_html/black_page.html
22.07.19 08:32:44 (-0500) Resource URI is not correct, remote host is not responding or request was rejected.

2

Hey @atruji77!
The format of the video that looks acceptable for Screenly.
I can offer try running a video directly from omxplayer or mplayer(Screenly uses these players) if you could. I think so you will learn more about your issue.

3

Can you try to convert the video using HandBrake instead? https://handbrake.fr/

I’ve seen issues with encoders before, HandBrake fixes almost all of them as far as I have experienced.

4

I just tried using Handbrake to encode my video as well. I was previously using some other h265 encoder, but neither of them will play. I’m getting an identical error to the above user, and if it matters, I’m using Balena on my Pi

5

not sure h265 is supported:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=246443

but if @atruji77 can use handbrake for his videos and tells us the outcome, this will help clear some of the compatibility questions.

6

I may have misunderstood the r encoding I need. What settings should I be using in handbrake to get a playable video?

7

mp4… but hold on i am testing but taking a bit because i have different version of screenly on different pi’s so i need to install the production version to make sure i am in the same version as user

8

Standing by ready to try something when you shake something out.

9

sorry i see my pi zero w is taking very long to install screenly… i am not able to play a video on my production version of pi3, and even a google slides with youtube video says error 5… trying to troubleshoot…

ugh, i forgot and installed buster on the SD card… great, now i have to get stretch and burn to SD card to test this.

10

So found my own answer on this. The fine folks on github pointed me to the fact that the latest version of balena os doesnt like its omx player. Downgrading to the previous version worked. Now I just need to remove the black screen show…

11

what does black screen show mean? just wondering

12

I had the same issue where my Screenly set up on Rpi with Balena Cloud would not play any of the H264 or normal videos.

This is what I tried to fix it:

  • Adjust the GPU memory of your Raspberry Pi in order to optimize content playback.
    To do this, click the “Fleet Configuration” tab on the left-side menu on the balenaCloud interface. On the Fleet Configuration menu, scroll down to find the RESIN_HOST_CONFIG_gpu_mem configuration item. Then, click “activate” to enable the item. Next, click the pencil icon on the right-hand side and change the value to 192. Restart the Pi to make this config work.

Hope that is helpful!